DreamWorld (YC W21) MMO raises all red flags

Wake up and smell the bullcrap.

It’s been a while since I was able to showcase a genuinely, blatantly, outwardly fraudulent crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Today’s topic is Dreamworld, a game titled so because you’d have to be living in a dream world to believe all of the promises that the Kickstarter campaign is offering. Dreamworld showed up on my radar thanks to MassivelyOP, and might be the biggest load of false promises and baseless hope I’ve seen in the last decade.

Fair warning; I’m billing Bree from MOP for the medical bills when the vein in my forehead bursts after writing this article.

So let’s dive into why I can tell you right off the bat that Dreamworld is a load of false promises. Dreamworld is promising a single server game capable of hosting millions of players with thousands of unique biomes, and will combine every genre and game type into one title. Oh and they’re going to do all of this with a team of two programmers (up to ten) and ten grand in Kickstarter funding. Oh and it will run on Mac and mobile.

Just think about the logistics behind that for one second and the whole thing unravels.

I genuinely find this offensive, and the more I read the Kickstarter and the promises inside the angrier I’m getting. Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid or I was born yesterday. It isn’t the first time we’ve seen a company pop up out of nowhere run by people with no credentials or history in the gaming industry, and try to get funding for some massive project that multi-million dollar corporations haven’t been capable of producing, but it’s definitely the first time I’ve seen it done while using the default Unreal player model.

Dreamworld tastes like snake oil, the kind of snake oil that promises that a group of ragtag nobodies can accomplish on a fraction of the budget with a fraction of the manpower and a fraction of the programming experience a project infinitely more powerful than games made on budgets of $100 million+ with teams of thousands of developers haven’t done. Dreamworld’s Kickstarter is either the product of a self-aware scam, or the creation of someone deluded by their own hubris. Either way the real losers here are going to be the backers who waste their cash that could be better spent on something more reasonable. Like a Juicero.

Nowhere is the more obvious than the accompanying gifs, that use a technique showing a variety of surface level material to make you think that there is something deeper. What you don’t realize is that the carefully crafted set pieces are literally just that; carefully crafted set pieces. Go beyond what is shown and you’ll see the scaffolding and duct tape holding everything together. It’s a fancy looking Hollywood set that gives the illusion of being more fleshed out than it actually is. Remember; Anthem’s 2017 E3 trailer was fake.

Even the “risks and challenges” part of the campaign reeks of shameless snake oil sales techniques.

Every adventure comes with risks, and if it wasn’t challenging, it wouldn’t be worth the effort! We’re confident we can create DreamWorld, and make it everything we’ve described in our campaign and more. Our only question is how fast we can build it all, and that’s why we’re here seeking your help. Let’s forge the new world together!

Ha ha, it’s not whether we can build it, but how fast. I would commend the two developers on their bravado were I not confident they are fully aware of what a load of bunk these claims are.

At the head of all of this is Zachary Kaplan, a man whose career has nothing to do with video games. Kaplan’s career mostly pertains to marketing which explains perfectly how the Kickstarter campaign is a finely crafted veil of exaggerated promises. We even get a sob story in the Kickstarter about how Kaplan lost his job as a waiter, his fiancé left him, he lost a job opportunity, moved back with his parents, and is now shooting back up to live out his dream. Everyone loves a come from behind story.

Kaplan also spent eight years as the founder and CEO of CORE AEGIS Inc. I assume Kaplan wrote the mission statement here as well because it grossly oversells what CORE AEGIS actually creates.

CORE AEGIS Incorporated is the foundational block for a grand vision of innovation. We build our dreams of the future, today, and will never sacrifice quality for our bottom line. CORE creates products and services that excite and impassion, as well as provide solutions to unaddressed needs of individuals around the world. Our lens on life and making is one of ceaseless attention to detail, a strong sense of fun, and the drive to instill wonderment.

Fantastic. What has CORE AEGIS released? It must be one of those Star Trek Tricorders with how many buzzwords they use. Nah, it’s a bluetooth speaker and a chest strap for said speaker.

A marketing manager with no experience in video games who thinks they can create something more ambitious than a Rockstar Games title with none of the anything. Where have we heard that before? If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume that Zachary Kaplan was a pseudonym for Jason Appleton. And we all know how Greedmonger turned out, and that game asked for $30 grand minimum.

The Kickstarter campaign is banking on a few shady ideas to get people on board ASAP, including the backer’s name on the Pantheon walls and a custom message that will be there forever. And by forever I mean until the game gets cancelled mid-alpha. You can even spend $60 to get a plot of land in the starter city. You exploit that FOMO, Dreamworld.

I really want to believe that Dreamworld is the product of a clueless entrepreneur whose eyes are bigger than his grasp on reality, but when all roads inevitably lead to a destination where backers are being fed promises that the creator knows or should know are unrealistic, I honestly don’t care about the distinction.

Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/3gw67v0